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Epoch Co., Ltd.
Company typePrivate
IndustryVideo games, toy industry
FoundedMay 1958; 66 years ago (1958-05) in Komagata, Taitō, Tokyo, Japan
Headquarters
Taitō, Tokyo
,
Japan
Number of employees
220[1]

Epoch Co., Ltd. (株式会社エポック社, Kabushikigaisha Epokku Sha) is a Japanese toy and computer games company founded in 1958 which is best known for manufacturing Barcode Battler and Doraemon video games, Aquabeads, and the Sylvanian Families series of toys. Its current Representative President is Michihiro Maeda.

They also made Japan's first successful programmable console video game system, the Cassette Vision, in 1981.

History

The TV Vader, a dedicated home video game console that played a Space Invaders clone
The Cassette Vision

Founded in May 1958 by Maeda Taketora and three others in Tokyo with ¥1 million, Maeda Taketora is made president, eleven months later, it had increased its capital to ¥2.5 million. Epoch participated in the first Japanese international toy trade fair in 1962. It moved to its headquarters to its current location in Tokyo in 1963. After 20 years of its founding in 1978, Epoch had increased to ¥200 million - 200 times the original startup cost. It also had a United States office, which sold imported English versions of its products. In September 2001 it founded an international branch. It acquired International Playthings of the United States in 2008.[2] It is most famous for its Doraemon and Sylvanian Families toy and video game productions.

Video game consoles

LCD handheld electronic games

Epoch also created many LCD handheld electronic games. Some of these were made in cooperation with ITMC, Gama-Mangold, Tomy and other companies.[3][4]

Games produced

Doraemon games

Sylvanian Families games

Licensed games

Other games

References

  1. ^ "会社概要 | エポック社公式サイト".
  2. ^ "International Playthings Officially Sold to Epoch Company, Ltd".
  3. ^ (in French) Epoch LCD handheld electronic games Archived 2008-11-14 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ "GAMAtronic Handheld Games". www.handheldmuseum.com. Retrieved 2019-05-19.

External links

Authority control databases
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